The Designated Hitter: History, Rules and the Arguments For and Against
How the designated hitter works, why the American League adopted it in 1973, how the National League held out until 2022, what the numbers show about pitchers at the plate and how the Ohtani rule changed the position.
The designated hitter is a player who bats in the lineup in place of the pitcher and does not play the field. For the first 49 seasons of its existence the rule split the major leagues in two: the American League used it from 1973, the National League did not (except in the pandemic season of 2020), and a good deal of baseball argument for half a century came down to which version was the real game. Since the 2022 season both leagues use it, and the pitcher at the plate has become a memory in the major leagues.
The rule was not adopted to improve baseball in an abstract sense. It was a practical response to a specific problem, the low scoring of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and to a specific fact about the pitchers who had to bat. Both are visible in the numbers. This article covers what the rule says, why it came into the American League, what the evidence shows about its effects, what happened in 2022 and how the strongest arguments on each side hold up.
For other rules that shaped the modern game, see the pitch clock in detail and the shift restrictions explained. More coverage of the sport's rulebook is on the rules and umpiring topic page. Figures in this article come from the historical record through the 2025 season.
How the rule works
The designated hitter, usually called the DH, is named on the lineup card before the game. He bats in the order like any other starter and never takes the field. The rule has several parts that readers often get wrong.
- The DH must be named before the game begins. He bats in the spot in the order that would otherwise belong to the pitcher.
- Once the game starts, the DH may be replaced by a pinch hitter, who then becomes the DH. The player who was replaced cannot return to the game.
- A DH who takes a position in the field ends the club's use of the DH for the rest of the game, and the pitcher then bats.
- A team that changes pitchers does not affect the DH. The relief pitcher does not bat, and the DH continues.
- Since 2022 a starting pitcher can also be named as the DH. If he is removed from the mound, he may stay in the game as the DH. This is the so-called Ohtani rule, discussed below.
The practical effect is simple. Where the DH is in use, nine hitters face the opposing pitcher in every turn through the order, and the pitcher is never asked to bat. The pitcher still has to throw, run the bases if he reaches and field his position.
The problem the rule was meant to solve
By the late 1960s run scoring had fallen to a point that worried owners. The historical record shows how far: in 1968 each American League club scored 3.41 runs per game and hit 0.68 home runs per game, and the National League scored 3.43 and hit 0.55. In response, major league baseball lowered the pitching mound from 15 inches to 10 and shrank the strike zone for 1969. By 1972 the American League had recovered less than the National League. In 1972, the last year before the DH, the AL scored only 3.47 runs per team per game and hit 0.63 home runs, while the NL scored 3.91 and hit 0.73.
The American League also trailed the National League in attendance. In 1972 the AL drew 11.4 million fans in 12 clubs, against 15.5 million in the NL's 12. Owners wanted more offense and, they hoped, more fans. A rule that replaced the weakest hitter in the lineup with a real one was the cheapest way to get both. The idea was not new. It had been suggested early in the 1900s, with Connie Mack usually named as its first sponsor, and it was tested in the minor leagues before the major leagues took it up. The American League's owners approved it for 1973 as an experiment, and the colorful Oakland owner Charlie Finley was one of its loudest supporters. The National League declined to join.
What happened in 1973
The first designated hitter to bat in a regular-season American League game was Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees, on April 6, 1973, at Fenway Park. He came to the plate in the first inning with the bases loaded and drew a walk. The moment was more of a historical footnote than a performance, but it is why Blomberg's name is attached to the rule.
The rest of the season showed the effect more clearly. The following table compares the two leagues in the last season without the rule and the first season with it.
| League | Season | Runs per team game | Home runs per team game |
|---|---|---|---|
| American | 1972 | 3.47 | 0.63 |
| American | 1973 | 4.28 | 0.80 |
| National | 1972 | 3.91 | 0.73 |
| National | 1973 | 4.15 | 0.80 |
The American League's scoring rose by more than three-quarters of a run per game, an increase of about 23 percent, and its home run rate rose by more than a quarter. The National League also improved, which tells us that the DH was not the only cause. The mound and the strike zone had been changed several years earlier, and offense was recovering across the sport. Still, the AL went from being the lower-scoring league to the higher-scoring one in a single year, which is hard to attribute to anything else.
Attendance supports a cautious reading. The American League's total rose from about 11.4 million to about 13.4 million, a gain of 17 percent, but the National League's rose by about 7 percent as well. The DH may have helped at the gate, but the evidence is mixed.
Who the first designated hitters were
The first DH class was a collection of established hitters whose legs or gloves had begun to fail. The historical appearance records show Orlando Cepeda playing 142 games as the DH for Boston and Tony Oliva doing the same for Minnesota. Tommy Davis played 128 games as Baltimore's DH and Frank Robinson 127 games for California. Gates Brown, who had spent years as one of the best pinch hitters in the American League, played 119 games as Detroit's DH.
These names show what the rule did for careers. A knee injury ended Oliva's days in right field, but not his days as a hitter. Cepeda, who had played first base for the Giants and the Cardinals, found a place for the last years of his career. The DH became a way to keep older sluggers in the lineup, and later it became a role in which a few players spent their whole careers.
Davis's year is an example. He hit .306 for the Orioles, tied for second in the AL batting race behind Rod Carew's .350, in a season when Baltimore won 97 games and the American League East. The DH did not take over the batting race, but it did put more good bats into the lineups.
Fifty years of two rule sets
For nearly half a century, the same sport was played under two sets of rules. The effects reached into the postseason, where the DH rule had to be negotiated. The World Series used the DH in all games in 1976. For the next several years the rule alternated between years, and from 1986 on, the Series followed the rule of the home park: the DH was used in the American League city and not in the National League city. Interleague play, which began in 1997, followed the same principle.
This arrangement produced some of the sport's best-known oddities. A National League club that won a pennant could spend two games of the Series with a bench player in the lineup who rarely played, and an American League club could be forced to choose which of its everyday hitters would sit in an NL park. The manager of an AL team also had to think about strategy differently. In the NL he had to decide when to pinch hit for the pitcher, how long to leave a tiring starter in the game and whether to attempt a sacrifice bunt. In the AL those decisions largely disappeared.
The pitcher at the plate
The best argument for the DH is a single statistic: how badly pitchers hit. In 1973, the first season of the split, players who appeared mainly as pitchers hit .150 for the National League, against .263 for everyone else, and struck out in 35 percent of their at-bats against 14 percent for the others. Those figures come from the historical batting records, grouping players by whether they pitched in at least half their games, so they are approximate.
The gap widened with time. In 2021, the last season before the universal DH, NL pitchers hit .109 in 3,877 at-bats, with 14 home runs and 1,984 strikeouts, a strikeout in roughly half of their at-bats. Other NL players hit .249. That is nearly five strikeouts for every hit, and a lineup spot that produced almost nothing else.
The injury argument is related. Pitchers who bat have to run the bases, and the risk of an arm or leg injury to a pitcher running to first is real, although the historical data cannot measure it.
The universal DH, 2020 to 2022
The National League adopted the DH for the shortened 2020 season, when a pandemic shortened the schedule to 60 games, and dropped it again in 2021. The permanent change came in 2022, as part of the agreement between the players and the owners that ended a lockout. The DH became universal in all 30 clubs.
The 2022 league numbers are a useful check on the claim that the DH increases offense. In 2022 the American League scored 4.22 runs per club per game, and the National League 4.34. The year before, with the National League's pitchers still batting, the AL had scored 4.60 and the NL 4.46. So the NL, after adding the DH, scored slightly fewer runs per game. The explanation is not clear. A change in the baseball, the weather and the quality of pitching all affect scoring, and a single season is a small sample. What the figures do show is that the universal DH did not produce the surge that supporters of the rule expected.
The sheet for 2022 gives some context: a club struck out 8.40 times per game and hit 1.07 home runs, compared with 5.24 strikeouts and 0.80 home runs in 1973. The modern game is built on power and strikeouts, and in that game a pitcher at the plate is a larger gap than he was in the 1970s.
The Ohtani rule
The 2022 changes included a new provision for players who both pitch and hit. Until then, a starting pitcher who was also the DH ended his club's use of the DH when he left the mound, and the pitcher's spot reappeared in the lineup. Under the new rule, a player can be listed as both the starting pitcher and the DH. When he is removed from pitching, he can stay in the game as the DH.
The rule is named after Shohei Ohtani, the star who revived regular two-way play in the major leagues. It is a narrow rule that affects very few players, but it removed a penalty for a team that wanted to use a two-way star. In 2024, the historical record shows Ohtani with 159 games as DH, one of the highest totals in a season for any player.
The case for and against
The arguments for the DH are strong and mostly practical. It replaces a hitter who strikes out in half of his at-bats with one who can hit. It protects pitchers from injury on the bases. It extends the careers of players who can hit but not field, and gives managers a role for older sluggers. It also makes the major-league rules the same in every park.
The arguments against are about strategy and tradition. A manager in a no-DH game has to decide when to pinch hit for a pitcher, and that decision is a real trade-off between a better hitter now and a worse pitcher later. The double switch, the sacrifice bunt and the intentional walk to reach the pitcher's spot are all pieces of strategy that the DH reduces. Supporters of the pitcher at bat also say that the game's identity includes all nine players doing everything. The responses are that the strategic moves were mostly necessary because the pitcher was so weak, and that a rule is not better because it is old.
There is also a Hall of Fame argument. Hal McRae, Edgar Martinez, Harold Baines, Frank Thomas and David Ortiz all spent much of their careers as designated hitters, and the historical record shows David Ortiz with 2,029 career games as DH, the most of anyone, ahead of Baines with 1,643, McRae with 1,427 and Martinez with 1,403. Martinez was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2019 and Ortiz in 2022, evidence that voters have come around to treating the position as legitimate.
What the DH means for fantasy players
In fantasy baseball a player who is listed at DH usually fills a utility slot. The universal DH made it easier for managers to find playing time for good hitters in both leagues. For a fuller guide to roster slots, see fantasy baseball for beginners and the fantasy section of this site.
Common questions
When did the DH start? The American League adopted it for 1973.
When did the National League adopt it? After a temporary use in 2020, permanently in 2022.
Can a pitcher be a DH? Yes, since 2022, and the Ohtani rule lets him stay as the DH after leaving the mound.
Who was the first DH? Ron Blomberg of the Yankees, on April 6, 1973.
Does the DH raise scoring? In 1973 the American League scored about 23 percent more than in 1972. In 2022 the National League scored slightly less than in 2021, so the evidence is mixed.
Where to go next
If the rules of the game are your interest, a sensible next read is the dropped third strike rule, another rule that surprises casual fans. To compare players across eras, use the leaders page.